Memorial of Saints John de Brébeuf and Isaac Jogues, Priests, and Companions, Martyrs
John de Brébeuf, Isaac Jogues, Gabriel Lalemant, Noel Chabanel, Anthony Daniel, Charles Garnier, Rene Goupil, John Lalande, French Jesuits, were missionaries working among the Huron and Iroquois Indians in North America, primarily in Canada. All of them were martyred by the Indians in 1642-1649. Pope Pius XI beatified them in 1925 and canonized them in 1930.
The Jesuits, Sulpicians and Ursulines made great contributions as missionaries in Canada. The greatest obstacle to their work was the distance - huge empty spaces and wild Indians. They treated the missionaries as white colonizers who came here for the sole purpose of tearing away their homeland. The atrocities committed by the Europeans on the Indians made them even more hostile. In 1674, however, the first Canadian diocese in Quebec was established. Bishop Laval founded the first theological seminary in this city, which gave rise to a French-speaking university that still exists today.
Since 1926, in Midland (Ontario), where the tombs of John de Brébeuf and Gabriel Lalemant were discovered, there has been a Shrine of Canadian Jesuit Martyrs. Local Indians and many representatives of Canadian immigrants pray there. This sanctuary was visited in 1984 by Pope Saint John Paul II, who then said: "Let us recall for a moment those heroic saints whom we venerate in this place, who have left us such a wonderful heritage", and later added: "This sanctuary of martyrs is a place of pilgrimage and prayer, a monument of God's blessing to the past , an inspiration for us who look to the future. "
Reflection on Today’s Gospel – Lk 12:13-21
I propose a simple juxtaposition of two statements of the Lord Jesus. " Friend, who appointed me as your judge and arbitrator?" - answered the Lord Jesus to the man who asked Him to settle the dispute regarding the inheritance. How can this be reconciled with another word of the Lord Jesus that all authority in heaven and on earth is given to Him?
Each of us has seen disputes among drunkards, or at least heard of such disputes. These disputes can be very serious, sometimes even someone dies in such disputes. We must clearly say to ourselves: The Lord Jesus will never be a judge or arbitrator in such disputes. His teaching and his will go much deeper: He firmly demands that we do not get drunk.
Property disputes and many other disputes - such as power disputes, over some honorary payments, etc. - are often very similar to drunken disputes. Often the participants in such disputes are drunk with their worldly desires. That is why the Lord Jesus, in the face of such disputes, says: " Friend, who appointed me as your judge and arbitrator?" If we want the Lord Jesus to be our judge or conciliator, we must first sober up. We have to learn the correct approach to material and temporal values in general, stop considering them as the highest values. Because we are dumber than drunkards if we take any temporal values as the final goal of our lives. "For what a man, even if he gains the whole world - even if he becomes a minister or president, even if he won the Nobel Prize or was a billionaire - if he suffered a loss of his soul?
Let us first of all try to be rich before God; let us store up treasures in heaven. Then even if one of us will become a billionaire, it would not hurt him.
Until Tomorrow
fr. george